One type of carrier for articles such as bottles is formed from blanks of paperboard sheet stock which are wrapped around the articles by a packaging machine. Typically, the articles are encased by two side panels and top and bottom panels foldably connected to the side panels. The ends of the package are open. The package is adapted to be lifted by finger holes or other type of handle integrally formed in the top panel. Openings are provided in the side panels adjacent the bottom panel to hold the heels or bases of the articles in place. In addition, where the articles are bottles, openings are provided in the top panel to hold the necks of the bottles in place.
One problem with such carriers is the fact that they typically are formed from relatively thick paperboard, which adds significantly to the cost of manufacture. Attempts have been made to use thinner and therefore more inexpensive paperboard stock, but this tends to make the carrier too weak and subject to tearing at high stress points. To remedy this tendency, attempts have been made to reinforce the thinner carrier blank or strengthen the most obvious area of stress, the handle of the carrier. Despite whatever success may have been achieved by these or other attempts to use thinner paperboard stock, the strap of carrier material left between the edge of the side panel and the end heel cutout remains a problem area. Even though the handle can be redesigned to overcome the stresses of lifting and carrying a carrier formed from relatively thin paperboard stock, stresses encountered in loading, shipping and unloading have not heretofore been satisfactorily combated. Specifically, this strap portion tends to tear during the sometimes rough handling the carriers receive in shipping, such as when the carriers are drop-loaded in forming a case of four carriers.
The strap portion is a very difficult area to strengthen because the provision of the heel cutouts necessarily results in a thin strap. For example, a bottle carrier for six soft drink bottles typically is 83/4 inches long, with cutouts centered on the bottles. Each cutout typically would be about 17/8 inches wide at its base, leaving a strap on only 1/2 inch in width. To make the cutouts smaller so that the strap is wider would be counter to the desire to hold the bottles securely in place, since wide cutouts increase the grip exerted by the edges of the cutouts on the bottles. To attempt to redesign the strap portion to reinforce it would tend to once again increase the cost of the carrier and would not be desirable.